This is probably a pretty silly thing to be bugged by, but… in Finland at least, if you want to work on utility poles, you need to be a certified electrician with some three odd years of vocational school under your belt. Yet Tomoya gets the job on the spot with only his (poor) high school diploma, and the manager dude is apparently perfectly happy with having to train his new employee from scratch. Is this just some cultural difference, or did anyone else find themselves wondering if they maybe missed something?

Electricians in general need a lot of education since it involves safety. Though it could be different in Japan.

The same kind of rules apply to Japan, which is really very strictly organized. It indeed doesn't make a sense that someone without any formal training may fiddle with public electricity services.

Well, that's why he needed to pull a favour from Yoshino - who admittedly owes him a big one.

Still, the manager's blitheness kind of strains credibility. "Hey boss, this kid here has previously shown zero interest or aptitude in public electricity services and has absolutely no experience in the field, but he helped me and my wife get married so could you maybe give him a job or something?"

I'm suggesting that Yoshino lied to cover for Tomoya, just like he covered up his injury. I'm sure that in any sequel, Tomoya will end up losing his job as the truth comes out, shortly followed by losing their home, and then the entire family dies of hypothermia in the snow. Happy ending theme tune plays. Why Did You Make Me Hit You??

Glad to be of service! And yeah, Yoshino probably did lie his head off, but I'd like to think that the manager at least asked to see Tomoya's certificates or something. I don't think either of the two possessed the know-how or the gall to fabricate qualification documents. But depending on just how dumb the manager / silvery Yoshino's tongue is, I suppose it could happen.

Yoshino is a loyal employee and probably was able to strike a deal with his boss that Tomoya follows him (as an apprentice) and learns what he needs to learn. Alternatively, they might have a program for that company to both teach electricians the basics of what they need to know and provide apprenticeships. And if those don't make sense, MST3K Mantra solves it.

Just read this part in the VN, and Yoshino specifically says that his job doesn't even check for a high school education. I'm guessing the writers simply didn't know better.

Episode 15 of After Story: So Nagisa is pregnant, and we all know giving birth isn't easy for the mother, especially if they're an Ill Girl with a frail body, which can lead to bad things. We all got this? Good. Then just WHY did Nagisa decide to give birth in her house (Itself fairly strange, but whatever), and what is worse, why didn't Tomoya, her parents, or ANYONE realize how bad an idea this was? Did they forget how (for example) half the previous episode was about how hard it was for Nagisa to find a job due to her illness? I mean, this isn't a petty little detail, she's been ill since she was born. Did IdiotBalls rain the night before or what? And when she finally changes her mind, they just mention it by passing (So they could set the Deus Angst Machina I guess), as if it was a minor thing. Great.

Actually, in both the anime and VN, they did realize instantly that every decision Nagisa made was shortsighted and dangerous, and they spend the next couple of episodes trying to change her mind. Sanae even went so far as to suggest Nagisa have an abortion; Tomoya didn't really say much one way or the other, but he didn't object to it. Nagisa refused.

Then, Nagisa decided she wanted a home-birth. Now, normally that's a fine idea – it relaxes the mother, helps form parent/child bonds, and so on – but given Nagisa's delicate constitution, it was better to go to the hospital. On that point, they finally managed to talk some sense into Nagisa and she agreed to go to the hospital… but she ended up going into labor early… during a heavy snowstorm. The ambulance couldn't make it in time.

I'm surprised no one considers a cesarean section, which would be much easier on Nagisa's frail body. Granted, the early birth would have rendered this idea moot, but it should have come up at some point.

But that's exactly the point. If they could have gotten Nagisa to a hospital, a doctor would have given her a C-section without hesitation. The fact that she couldn't get out of her apartment due to the weather means it wasn't a possibility. Midwives know a lot of things; how to perform a C-section is not one of them.

Nagisa had been consistently strong compared to earlier by this point. By the time they realized something was truly wrong and that they NEEDED the hospital, they got snowed in. I doubt that they would know how to do a C-section.

This is a bit of fun I was milling about since I just got through watching this: If that Hospital that was built on the spot Akio prayed for Nagisa's health was built just a bit sooner, instead of completing construction sometime between her death and the 5 year time skip that hospital could of probably of saved her life. I mean it is implied to be walking distance from either of their houses. Granted this is all some wishful thinking on my part and I suppose it works out in the end but still, food for thought.

It's very important to the plot that Nagisa dies. If you don't get it, read the VN.

And on the topic of mentioning important stuff by passing: The Theater Club closing. So they focus the entire first season on restoring the thing, and then they forget about it in After Story until they get to halfway the season, where they just give a quick mention it didn't have enough members to continue existing. Ends making the first season look a bit like a "Shaggy Dog" Story in retrospect, if you ask me. Also, two of the three members were Tomoyo and Yukine, who should have enough influence to try to get new members in. Sooo…

The first season was split between the Theater club and Fuko's sister's wedding. The main point of both was to get the people closer and essentially establish Tomoya's and Nagisa's closest friends, and Nagisa always knew it would be temporary. Also, this is Clannad, which prides itself on being a "Shaggy Dog" Storyin itshappiest endings.

Tomoyo and Yukine are fairly busy doing other things, and Nagisa did try to restore it by herself, but her weak personality caused her to fail at that goal. Not much a graduated Tomoya could do about that.

That covers the "Why didn't they help" part fine. Thank you. The other one is just KyoAni focusing too much on Nagisa as usual, I figure.

Again, this is just more stuff directly lifted from the games, so it's not entirely KyoAni's fault.

No, I meant having mostly Nagisa-focused scenes, don't misunderstand me... Sorry if I made it sound like they were making up stuff. And just to make myself clear, I don't dislike KyoAni (Hey, my favorite anime is Kanon 2006) nor Clannad, case I was misunderstood. Just that, from my PoV, they went kind of overboard on how much Nagisa appeared, even taking into account she's the main heroine with a longer plot and all that. It's not the plot's fault, is they way they played it out.

Well, neither Tomoyo nor Yukine were members. Yukine was just someone they talked to from time to time, and Tomoyo was student council president. And besides, this troper liked the extra focus on Nagisa, and the highlight of how she and Tomoya need each other. I could write a corresponding Headscratcher about how Yuuichi seemed to deal with the Kanon girls like an assembly line process and forget them instantly after he's done, even when they are briefly apparently the most important people in his life. Made the whole freak out over Ayu unconvincing, since he seemed pretty darn able to move on to the next girl before. It's better for the plotline and characterization to just pretend some arcs didn't exist – they had to rush in places anyways.

If you want to write that IJBM, go ahead. I'm not going to disagree with you or anything, since, well, it's the truth. I just liked all the girls and seeing how their stories developed. Honestly, either way is alright, considering we're talking about an anime adaptation of a Visual Novel with multiple routes - either you screw someone out of spotlight or you make it like (as you said) an assembly line. Tough, in all fairness, it doesn't make Nagisa hanging on with Tomoya all the time in the first third of After Story (You know, the Sunoharas/Misae/Yukine arcs) any less strange, though. IIRC, she only had any importance when they make Sanae pass for Youhei's girlfriend, and the "lap pillow" scene was really weird... But I guess it's just me. (Sorry, rambling off).

How is it strange for Nagisa to be with Tomoya all the time in the first third of After Story? They are a couple, as in boyfriend/girlfriend at that point, and also best friends. So of course she's going to spend time with him. It's not like she's still just a girl that he gets along with at that point. Not to mention that he's kind of living in her house.

Also, this troper liked After Story a lot more than season 1, and thinks that this is the payoff from that.

No disagreeing here, either. Nagisa might appear a lot or not, but her sad scenes were really sad regardless.

To the IJBM starter: It all boils down to Adaptation Decay. From what I can tell, the only way you'll be satisfied is if every route is animated, which is impossible. And even if that was done, the After Story is still officially Nagisa's territory, they ARE the Official Couple after all.

And speaking of Tomoyo, first episode of After Story: Tomoyo bats and gets a home-run. She then randomly decides to do a more feminine batting and gets nothing. Sunohara tries a home-run... run and fails (Not sure of the proper term, not a baseball fan, sorry), so he gets berated by Kyou... and Tomoyo. Who blame him as the cause for their current tie. Even though if Tomoyo had made a home run when she had the chance, they would be winning by one point. Huh... what? I know Sunohara is a Butt-Monkey, but this is ridiculous.

And on the baseball game topic: Why didn't anybody even for one second blame their sudden lead drop on the fact they lost their Game-Breaker pitcher and his replacement being horribly weak? And for that matter (Though this might be related to actual baseball rules), couldn't they have Kyou or Tomoyo do the pitching instead and give Nagisa a bat? You'd think having one horrible batter would be better than having a horrible pitcher. Or have Ryou pitch, she would've been better than Nagisa too. But nope, Nagisa does it and nobody minds it one bit.

Well, Akio explains that the opposing team had professional batters, who were unused to horrible slow pitches. Also, Akio will beat you up if you blame Nagisa, so of course nobody says anything.

...true. Why didn't I think of that? As for Sunohara, well, he's a Butt-Monkey, so I guess the MST3K Mantra is the way to go.

Akio's strategy here is Truth in Television, especially in slow-pitch softball games. If you're in a game like this where you expect the balls to be regularly hit, you want 1) a pitcher who puts a lot of arch on it to keep the hitters from putting them out of play too regularly, and 2) you want your best athletes at key defensive positions.

It's definitely Butt-Monkey status. In the Visual Novel, Tomoyo eventually got baited into giving the other team a triple play, and nobody talked down on her (then again, she did manage that home run. Sunohara's only proper achievement at that point was tagging someone out after receiving a very nicely done pass by Mei.)

Sounds like Kyou was teasing Tomoya, as she rarely would compliment him directly. I have no idea why the hell Tomoya would respond like that, maybe he was just out of it after Nagisa died.

There's no evidence that Nagisa had trouble making friends, except that in the scenes quoted she had been forced to repeat a year twice. Nagisa entered the third year for the first time (ep 23) with at least two friends, and got one more quickly. Tomoya only had one friend (Sunohara) for the first two years of school until he met Nagisa, and then changed his attitude. And even Sunohara was an arranged marriage. Tomoya attributes the entire True Companions to Nagisa, because she broke him out of his introspection, and had him gather the theatre club for her sake. Tomoya was quite blunt in the introduction – that he didn't think he had friends before Nagisa.

Nagisa is shown to get along with people very well and to make them feel at ease. Reclusive Kotomi immediately takes a liking to her as soon as they meet, and Ryou was especially enthralled by her.

Well, that sounds pretty right. Nothing more to add for me.

In a different subbed version, Kyou says "She's not cynical like you" and then Tomoya replies, she's like her mother.

That's what the DVD-subtitles say as well. So the "Good at making friends"-line was probably just a mistranslation.

On Nagisa and relationships: Her and Tomoya sleeping on different futons after getting married. Full stop. Saying that's weird is an understatement. For that matter, the nature of their relationship is incredibly strange, what with them never hugging nor kissing, always holding hands at best. I mean, there's a middle point in between "Eroge" and "a way-over-the-top chaste relationship". This might be partially Values Dissonance or somesuch, possibly, but still, they couldn't have them hug and kiss at least ONCE? For example, Kanon 2006 had the winning couple kiss, and it's not alone or anything, so... Also, for those who have played the original game, do any of the other routes have hugging and kissing, or Nagisa's route isn't alone on this?

There is kissing and such in all the main girl routes including Nagisa in the game, though there is quite a bit more of it in the Tomoyo and Fujibayashi routes compared to the Fuuko, Kotomi, and Nagisa routes. Note that that's the primary reason those two routes were not included in the main anime, as it would have been way too difficult to synchronize those two much more romantic routes with the main story.

And also why they were given "alternate universes" episodes, then. Again, thank you, for that makes LOADS more sense than the utter and total lack of physical signs of appreciation from the anime. Seriously, what did get in KyoAni when doing this? At least two shows of them (Haruhi and Kanon) have kissing, dammit!

Kyou's OVA did have Ryou and Kyou kiss Tomoya (separately, of course).

I would like to point out that in the episode that reveals Nagisa is pregnant, she admits to have done "ecchi" stuff with Tomoya. ... or... something to that effect, depending which subs you watch. This was probably the closest this show ever got to acknowledging anything further in Tomoya's and Nagisa's relationship other than holding hands. So there ya go.

From what this troper has heard, the whole "sleeping in separate futons"-thing is apparently quite common in Japan, as they simply don't have futons big enough for two people to sleep on.

So many dating sim games have sex in them, I know it's a little odd, but the use of more of chaste characters is something I find refreshing.

In the game, Tomoya and Nagisa do actually share the same futon on occasion both before and after they get married.

The way Kyou and Fuuko's names are written on the OP. The former uses a more literal romanization style, the latter uses an older one, causing her to get referred as "Fuko" by subs, fans, and just about everyone else. Which makes me angry. You don't want to see me angry. Er, seriously anyway, can't they be consistent? I wouldn't mind it TOO much if it was "Kyo" and "Fuko", even though I'd prefer "Kyou" and "Fuuko", but man... mixing two styles just doesn't looks right.

A few people do refer to them as "Kyou" and "Fuuko"; it's written that way in the translated visual novel as well.

Blame the creators. They're the ones who decide how names get transliterated into English. Unlike China and Korea, Japan does not force its people to use a single style, so people sometimes get creative. Also, "Kyo" and "Kyou" represent completely different characters, the former usually being seen as a guy's name and the latter unisex or feminine. It's also to do with the fact that the Japanese "u" is much shorter than the English sound – leaving it as "Fuuko" would lead to mispronunciation in English (even more than the show already has); "Fuko" gets the idea across better in English even if it's less technically correct.

And back to Sunohara getting unfairly treated: Episode 16 of After Story. Sunohara and the others (except Tomoyo) go visit Tomoya and Nagisa to celebrate New Year. Sunohara calls Tomoya "Okazaki", as he's always done. Both Tomoya and Nagisa reply, even though he always calls Nagisa for her first name (And with honorific, something Tomoya doesn't gets). Thusly Kyou chastises... Sunohara, since both are "Okazaki" now. Even though he did his normal thing and Nagisa was the dumb one for replying when he's never called her for her last name. It's even worse when you consider Tomoya calls Kyou for her first name and Ryou for her last name, yet Kyou never gets confused, even though it's the same thing. So, basically, Kyou is a hypocrite, Sunohara gets punished for doing things right and Nagisa never makes mistakes, even when she does (Then again, two episodes before she couldn't see through her dad's Paper-Thin Disguise... And in the previous one she couldn't think of names based on hers except "Nagisako" and "Nagisami"... The brightest crayon in the box she ain't.). And yes, I shouldn't think this THAT much, but still...

This bit about calling them both Okazaki came from the Visual Novel (Yes I'm that far into the story, yay)

That doesn't makes it any less silly, though.

Kyou just likes making fun of Sunohara.

Yeah, I guess. As I said, I shouldn't think this THAT much, but hey, that's what this section is for, right? But yeah, I consider this question closed. Oh, and thanks for taking your time to answer to my silly questions.

Regarding Nagisa only coming up with 'Nagisako' and 'Nagisami' for names based on hers, they were talking about taking a kanji from each of their names. Nagisa's name is spelled with only one kanji though, so if you don't combine it with another one, you end up with just her name.

Why does nobody have internet? Cell phones don't seem to appear much either. Would have solved quite a few problems.

There are a few things in the show that make me feel that the show takes place in the mid-nineties if not earlier, mostly because of this fact and when Sunohara has Tomoya listen to a Yuuske Yoshino mix tape, it's a cassette tape. So Clannad probably takes place before cell phones or the internet became widespread.

This might explain Akio becoming a rapper in the one episode of After Story...

One early After Story episode had Tomoya listening to Dango Daikazoku on an mp3 player.

Well, Tomoya's family is lower-class so obviously not even a computer there, Akio was seen playing a racing game on a video game console in After Story, but the family does not seem to have a computer. The only other house explored is Kotomi's, and it's pretty big so there are unexplored areas. In the end, you can't be sure.

OTOH, if the action takes place anywhere after 2000, the lack of mobile phones is just implausible.

The dub shoehorns in a mention of Nagisa having a cell phone.

The visual novel takes place in the "present day", AKA the year the game was made, which is 2003. I am currently unavailable to provide the proof, but there is a calendar in Sunohara's room with the year "2003" on the top. Also you can just match up days/months to see what year it is. The only realistic previous years to have the 14th of April on a Monday is 1997 or 1986.

In the episode in which Nagisa searches for material about her parents' theatrical plays, the line-up of available videos goes to up 1994. So it has be at least that year.

Hmm, that must make me think that the anime at least takes place in 2008, or so, when it was made by KyoAni. Nagisa is about 18-19, and she was five when Akio prayed for her, making them set up a bakery so they could look after her, so the tapes would stop around 1994. Though the game still takes place in 2003, at least the school life part, because of Sunohara's calendar.

In the visual novel when you get to After Story, you see that Yoshino Yuusuke has a cell phone.

Not everyone can afford a cellphone. Not everyone can afford service. Not everyone can afford a computer. Not everyone can afford internet. Also they are in a remote town, which may not have great phone service anyway. Sure, 2008 might make it harder to accept but 2003 it would be reasonable for few people to have cellphones. And in anime and manga, the technology matches the source material.

Does anyone else think they missed a golden plot opportunity? Instead of having Nagisa magically/miraculously survive in Tomoya's second chance, they should have had all the people Tomoya and Nagisa helped over the years come together to help her survive.

...You remember why Nagisa was in that predicament in the first place, right? Because they were snowed in? Add that onto the fact that the birth occurred a fortnight earlier than expected, and you'd have to wonder how could any of them have known that this was going on.

Not to mention the fact that the miraculous ending had a lot of foreshadowing and complex pre-plotting; having this occur would have meant they would have to erase pretty much all of the illusionary world segments and any references to this in-series, which would cause quite a few difficulties.

So the taxi company got up Sunohara's ass for his blonde hair, when the rest of the cast's hair ranges in hue from blue to purple to green?

His hair is also the most obviously bright one. Blue is practically used as a lighter shade of black in cartoons, and even the green hair was pretty dark. Also Butt-Monkey

Blond is also typically the "bad boy/girl" hair color in Japan, since with their hair, it's usually only achieved by heavy bleaching. (Some kind of a rebel thing — either way, it's still the bad boy image.) It may have made customers feel uncomfortable, so it had to go.

Sunohara actually has blond hair. The rest have various shades of black hair, but as in You Gotta Have Blue Hair, hair colors can be used for personality or just to set them apart. Usually wild hair colors are just shorthand to tell characters apart.

I think the main point was that blond wasn't his natural hair color. The people with blue or purple hair are naturally colored that way.

During Misae's route, there is a scene where Yoshino is seen as a senior in high school. Since it's a flashback, you also see Kouko-sensei, while she was still an art teacher. It's only after the scene is over that you remember the two of them got married.

Yoshino stated that he met Kouko during his senior year when Kouko just started teaching while he was reminiscing in the After Story part.

Misae's cat. Whenever Tomoya hangs out in Sunohara's room, or is alone, or even if Misae is in the same room, that cat is always near him or in Tomoya's lap. Is he, just as Misae said, wearing clothes made of catnip?

There is a special affinity between the two of them: Tomoya's the only one the cat manages to "talk" to in After Story episode 6.

This may have something to do with the fact that Tomoya is the robot in the Illusionary World. This gives him a connection to the supernatural which may (somehow) foster a link between him and the cat.

At the end of episode 16, Tomoya wishes he never met Nagisa and gets his wish, finding himself back at the hill and not saying a word to her, and so reality shifts so that he never met her. How, then, does he end up her widower and the father of her child at the start of episode 17?

See below.

It has been a while, but I believe that episode 16 probably had not a literal shift, but a mental reflection. He then snaps back to reality and that is where episode 17 picks up. In fact Chapter 22 is really the only literal "shift" I remember, and he decides to stay with her. Additionally, the only scene I can recall of him regretting his life with Nagisa and being silent on the hill was the end of Chapter 21, which picks right up with Episode 22.

Since we're talking about the games, it did lightly mention the deed. The anime adaptation simply cut it out.

The anime adaptation mentions it too (in After Story). But in response to the original question, the lack of H-scenes is actually something quite a few people like about Clannad. It's a refreshing change for a romance VN to not have such things. In other words: it's sort of a stylistic choice.

I am very, very much bothered by exactly why so many people think that the scene in the last episode that was at the hill actually took place or something. It's almost painfully clear to me that it (as well as the similar scene in Episode 16, for that matter) was simply a symbolization of Tomoya's thought process, and has absolute no power on its own (it simply triggered the light orbs). So... yeah.

I didn’t see anything at all indicating that this hill scene was all just going on in Tomoya’s head. Where do you see it?

After the final Hill Scene, we cut to Nagisa miraculously surviving childbirth. She's giving birth in the same circumstances, in the same location with the same people around; it seems that nothing has changed except her survival. In the final Hill Scene, both Nagisa and Tomoya (arguably) demonstrate awareness of the events of timeline 1.0; If the final Hill Scene had really happened, we would expect to see some changes in this new timeline. For instance, knowing in advance that Nagisa would die in childbirth, you think they'd avoid getting her pregnant, or at least they would check her into the hospital before the big snowstorm hits. After Nagisa gives birth, we see a montage of Nagisa being alive and helping to raise Ushio, showing us the changes brought about by the miracle. But we don't see any montage of Nagisa and Tomoya's life being different in any way prior to the birth of Ushio. So it's reasonable to the conclude that the final Hill Scene didn't "really" happen; it was something in the middle of the miracle-process, like Tomoya's and Nagisa's souls having a conversation or something. The only "real" change was Nagisa's survival after childbirth.

This is what I have always thought about that scene, as well as the hill scene in the Grand Finale (or, at least in the case of the finale, they could be sort of ethereal meetings between Nagisa and Tomoya's souls. Or something). I've read some analyses of the show, but it still doesn't make sense that they could have actually happened because if they had, all the previous events would have completely changed. It's not like these scenes lose any of their impact just because they didn't physically occur.

"Of course it's a dream, Harry; but why on Earth would that mean that it's not real?" The final hill scene in the Grand Finale struck me as Tomoya retrieving Nagasi's soul from the afterlife, on his way back to the Real World in order to restore her to life. In fact, the whole Imaginary World section feels a bit like Orpheus in the Underworld.

I hope no one minds if I join in on this topic. I actually just finished the series, and initially, that particular Hill scene in the finale was the single most confusing part to me since in particular, I didn't understand how Nagisa could have any knowledge of all of the time she and Tomoya spent together. However, when I saw the Recap Episode, it slightly cleared things up: Tomoya explained to himself (and to the audience) that he could recall initially going through losing both Nagisa and Ushio, and then almost miraculously, being taken back right to the point that Nagisa gave birth, except that this time, she had survived of course. This pretty much confirms that Tomoya didn't actually re-live his initial meeting with Nagisa in reality, nor did he re-live everything else leading up to Ushio's birth, but was brought right back to the point where things went differently for the better as a sort of karmic reward. However, despite understanding that part of it, I still have absolutely no idea what that Hill scene was supposed to be exactly, especially since everyone seems to have a different theory. However, is it possible that there's an official answer to this? It not, I understand, since it is hard to know for certain. Nonetheless, can anyone help with that?

How Tomoya treats his father bugs me a bit. Sure, he severely damaged his arm (seriously, not cool), unabling him from playing basketball. But if you ask me, he's at least trying to be nice to him, even though there's a matter of negligence at all. The most baffling moment was when Tomoya was making that dango thing, his dad just looked at it, and made some reminiscing comment, and Tomoya was like "F*** you!" and ran away? What was the deal with that scene? Maybe I'm rambling too much...

The problem is that after his dad broke his shoulder, his father was being nicer to him, but he was treating him like a stranger than an actual son. Imagine you had a son and he had a friend over, you might offer to get them drinks or snacks but you wouldn't get to personal with your son's friend. That is how Tomoya's dad treats him, and that causes him to get very angry at his father.

The way I see it, Tomoya's father probably deeply regrets what happened in that fight, and wants to patch things up with Tomoya. But he doesn't know how to approach him anymore, and every time he tries, Tomoya refuses to forgive him and brushes him off. So he's lost hope of ever reconciling, though he'll make a token effort every now and again (such as with the dango snacks). But of course, his giving up hope leads to the whole "treating your son like a stranger" thing mentioned above, and Tomoya in turn thinks his father is deliberately avoiding him. It's a vicious cycle.

His detachment isn't as obvious in the English dub, but in the original Japanese, one of the things that outrages Tomoya so much is that his father refers to him as Tomoya-kun instead of simply Tomoya. In a culture where people are addressed by their first name or family name, with suffixes, based on how familiar they are with each other, a father referring to his son with the suffix of -kun is very over-formal and distant. It would be like your father referring to you as 'Mister' instead of 'Son'.

Tomoya hates him because he's a worthless drunk, but when Nagisa dies, Tomoya becaoms an even more worthless drunk. Then he gets his father was a lot better than he was, and stops hating his father.

A light novel series came out from 9/2004-10/2005 and was published by ASCII Media Works if that helps.

Sweet!

Maybe I just missed it somehow (not knowing Japanese and all that), but is it ever explained WHY Tomoya's dad got arrested? Almost every time we see him, he's knocked out drunk and sitting in front of the TV at home. Doesn't sound like much of a criminal to me. I realize they probably just needed an excuse for Tomoya to (a) not get promoted, and (b) hate his father even more, but yeah. Just Bugs Me.

The impression I got was drug possession or trading. Never stated outright, but it makes sense given the state of his life.

It seemed either he started using/dealing illegal drugs or, while drunk, got into a severe fight.

I don't know if this is the case in the Japanese version, but in the English dub, it's specifically stated that he was arrested for "dealing in something illegal". So yeah. If I had to guess, probably selling drugs or something else along those lines.

He was most probably selling drugs. The line in the steam version of the VN is "He was selling something dangerous". This should be either drugs or guns/explosives, and seeing as he's not a yakuza, it was probably drugs.

Once Tomoya and Nagisa become afraid they might forget about Fuuko just like everyone else, why don't they write letters to themselves, telling about a girl they met a girl named Fuuko, who is Ibuki-sensei's little sister? They could have written down that they'd have to visit he from time to time in the hospital as well. They could even have kept a log independently. Having two people write down the same thing would be evidence for the authenticity of the story.

Well, they might lose their memory of where they put them. Or the letters might disappear.

On a related note: if someone who can't see Fuuko touches her or comes into contact with the space she's occupying, what would everyone see or feel? Sanae tries to touch Fuuko's hand in the bakery after she visits the comatose Fuuko, but it's unclear what she feels, and what Nagisa and Tomoya see.

Why does nobody come for Kotomi the day her parents die? You'd expect family, child care or the police to look after her, but the only person to come by her house is that creepy guy with the mustache, scaring the poor little girl silly.

Said "creepy guy" is actually her legal guardian. Though one does wonder who raised her, considering she was terrified of him and didn't realize he wasn't a bad guy until she was 17.

It seems like the shock of the events isolated her from the world. Tomoya most likely did knock on her door a couple times, but she probably didn't let him in. She likewise didn't seem to have that much more friends. So a person doesn't appear for a few days? She's sick. When she came back, she would be more-isolated and probably not have talked to those who were her friends. As to how the legal guardian raised her, probably slipped money under the door or something.

That's even sillier. A child needs more than mere money to survive, even if that child is as smart as Kotomi. Someone had to take care of her. If it wasn't that guy, then who did?

Her family seemed decently wealthy, so it's probable they had a maid or a housekeeper (perhaps not live-in, but one who visits fairly often). Presumably, that person was the one who took care of her until she was self-sufficient.

This is Key, thing don't always make sense. In Kanon "Mai lives on her own from age 7, without any apparent income. Her mother dies, and it appers she has never had a father."

How did Nagisa know the illusionary world? She used the story in her play but unless she actually read that in a book (highly unlikely) she shouldn't know anything about the illusionary world at that time.

She is slightly out of touch with reality. Or, to be technical, she is remarkably in tune with the town at the detriment of her health. She probably dreams of the Illusionary World through the power of the Light Orbs and her natural connection.

When Tomoya's father shows up at the wedding in Clannad, Nagisa apologizes to Tomoya for inviting him without permission; in an early episode of Clannad After Story, she mentions that she'd like to meet Tomoya's father, as they've never met before. Um, what?

Wedding? ...are you sure you're not talking about the Theatre Club's performance? Also, I think that might have been a vague translation: I recall her saying that she thought Okazaki should meet with his father, but nothing that I can recall implies that she particularly wanted to speak with him (It's been a while since I've seen After Story, though, so I might be remembering a different moment)

I'm wondering about that as well, Nagisa did invite Tomoya's father for the play, yet she said in After Story (or at least in the dub) that she'd like to meet his father. I can't remember when she said that, but she did also say that Tomoya should speak with his father (depending on when Nagisa asked that, it could have been a bad translation).

Maybe it's just the subbed version I saw, but I believe she said she wanted to meet him "properly." I'm sure Japanese culture has a different meaning, but I personally thought she really meant "properly" as in "on more friendly terms WITH Tomoya." In other words, she wanted to meet Tomoya's father AS A FAMILY. (I believe this was before they were engaged, but Nagisa still thinks of Tomoya as part of the family and so his father is as well by extension.)

While Yoshino was at the Akio's baseball game, he must have noticed Tomoya's shoulder problem at one point. How did he not remember that when Tomoya started working with him?

In the visual novel, the baseball game was a completely unrelated and hidden route much like the laser tag hunt. As such, it's likely that Tomoya didn't get a job in the power company after the baseball game route.

How is Tomoya's father paying the bills? Unless I missed something, there was no mention of him working aside from in the flashback scenes to Tomoya's early childhood; whilst Tomoya's in high school and in the years after that, he doesn't seem in any fit state to be working...and yet he's still got a roof over his head, and neither of them are starving or anything.

Perhaps his mother (Tomoya's grandma) sends money...or seeing as how he was arrested for "something illegal" maybe he was able to scrape together a living by dealing? Unlikely, but vaguely possible.

In the visual novel they mention both his old job, which was likely a steady job with honest coworkers, the one he had while Tomoya was growing up, and his new job, with more shady coworkers. A while before he gets busted, he metions that one of his coworkers has offered him a good opportunity, and Tomoya notes that if it were someone from his old job offering it to him, it would have been a good and honest deal, but since it's someone from his new job, it's probably a shady deal, which it later turns out to be. He was probably fired from the first job for drinking.

The soccer club in episode 4 of After Story. If the club has a reputation for hazing and bullying, then why didn't the school go about trying to either shut down the club or get rid of the major members involved if their reputation's well known among the student body?

Japan takes a very different view toward bullying than the West does. It involves a fair bit of what we might call "victim blaming". The assumption is that if you are bullied, you must have done something to attract attention to yourself. They even have an idiom about this: "The nail that sticks up gets pounded down." There's a big societal emphasis on conformity and respecting your elders (which in this case would mean the older members of the club). And speaking up about it (like Sunohara did) is also frowned upon, because then you're bothering other people with your problems, which is a big no-no in Japanese society. Note that when Sunohara made a scene about it, the rest of the school, including the faculty, labelled him a delinquent troublemaker for it.

Kotomi's story arc bothers me a lot. For nearly a decade, she's been driven by guilt over destroying her parents' research. She finds out that the research wasn't in that envelope anyway, and that's cool. But then we learn that her parents had it with them and could have protected it (by putting it in that suitcase) but didn't. Sure, they didn't know the suitcase would reach home safely, but it was the best they could have done. No-one is in the least bothered by this thought. Also, were it not that everyone in this world is crazy, her guardian was a complete jerk for presenting the suitcase the way he did, getting up her (and the audience's) hopes that the research was saved when he knew it wasn't.

I think he wanted her to discover what was in there on her own, after all, the whole point of the suitcase is that her parents put their love of the child ahead of their work.

One minor thing I never understood is why Akio, and Tomoya when he worked at the bakery, was always throwing water on the sidewalk. They had plants in front of the bakery, but they were just tossing water on the sidewalk. Is this some weird Japanese thing?

If Google results are credible, it's to cool down the cement due to the summer heat.

It's an Asian thing. The people running the Thai food place near me does this in summer too, and I've been wondering why. I figured it out last summer at a festival, I was standing barefoot on a paved path, in line for water, and it was very hot, so I poured the last of my water on my feet and then it hit me. They do it for the benefit of people standing in line outside shops, barefoot.

So in the Yoshino plotline in After Story, you meet Kouko and work with her to help Yoshino make a new album but years later you meet her and Yoshino and don't remember that they were engaged.

After Tomoya was expelled for a while, his teacher comes to his home to talk with his father, and since his father isn't at home, the teacher decides to wait. Inside... and we all know the place is a rotten mess that would likely require some pest exterminators. But when his father and teacher meet, the teacher is all nice and polite and shows no signs whatsoever that might indicate him thinking that Tomoya is kind of forced to live in absolute filth. WHY!? HOW!? If this happened in Europe or the USA, one call from the teacher would have child services and police come running down the street before you can blink. I know about the whole deal in Japan that problems are something that a family is supposed to solve by itself, but this goes too far.

The entire house wasn't a mess, at least not while Tomoya was still living there. It wasn't until after he moved out that it really became a sty. Either Tomoya was the primary house keeper, or his father just stopped giving a shit after his son left.

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